Could Onshoring Be the Next Medtech Outsourcing Trend?

Thanks to low labor costs and excellent export infrastructure, China has long attracted U.S.-based manufacturers, including medical device makers, looking to cut costs by outsourcing production of components produced in high volume.

“Chinese wages and the value of Chinese currency are rising dramatically,” says Wall, adding that Boston Consulting Group found that a government mandate to raise the minimum wage could bring labor cost increases of 15–20% per year in Chinese factories.

At the same time, freight and other costs associated with offshore manufacturing are continuing to rise. Add in other downsides of doing business in China, such as intellectual property protection and quality control, and it’s no surprise that American companies are increasingly looking for outsourcing partners on their own shores.

“The decreasing cost benefit of manufacturing in China is influencing U.S.-based manufacturers to move production back home,” Wall says.

But not all manufacturing is coming back to the United States.

“The shift back to U.S.-based production is particularly salient for products manufactured specifically for the U.S. market,” Venkataramana says. This reduces shipping costs and challenges, gives OEMs a tighter grip on quality control, and allows them to take advantages of improving efficiencies in U.S.-based manufacturing.

Venkataramana cites big companies such as Apple and Ford as examples of the onshoring trend. The computer giant recently brought some of its assembly work back to the United States and the automaker plans to return 2000 jobs to American shores.

Every since the "cost control" craze got going instead of promoting R&D for increasing profits, I have been stating just how strategically inept those ideas were. This didn't take any real genius, just logic. The one thing that could always be depended on was the dedicated, tireless, Amercan medical device worker. It was simply incredible how worthless CEO's and Boards of Directors threw them out the window for no good reason, and still are. But now, when the entire stupid idea went to pot, turning 180 degrees (someone found those lost brains today) will not be that easy. An entire new infrastructure and workforce will need to be produced from nothing. Any "savings" from those years will be spent two-plus-fold.